The Church in Noble - Cornerstone
August 30, 2026
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      • 1 Thessalonians 1:1NASB95

  • Mighty To Save
  • Doxology
  • When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder
  • Run And Run (Christ Is All My Righteousness)
  • Shout To The North

  • God’s Faithfulness

    ILLUST: “Somebody” lives in your house, there is a “somebody” in your family.
    Closing out 1 Thessalonians
    READ: 1 Thess 5:23-28
    Prayer for sanctification of the church by God
    Prayer for preservation of believers by God
    Paul prays that God would bring all this together for maximum impact and effect
    It will take the effort of that church to allow God to work through them
    IF - they want their community to be impacted…
    Paul knows the faithfulness of God
    God knows our potential for faithfulness
    The closing of 1 Thess. brings this together
    Commands seen and woven throughout the book:
    Be set apart/holy
    Remember the hope available to you
    It takes your effort, and God’s power
    Paul nicely sums these up in his closing prayer and pleading for the church
    Wrapping up 1 Thessalonians…

    1) Reflections on the Church

    What the church SHOULD be known for
    The church in Thess
    Through the chapters
    Known for their faith and their love
    Faith was visible by their actions
    HUGE - maybe the biggest standout piece
    They received the Gospel!
    They received it as God’s Word
    And it changed their lives!
    That’s what the Gospel does
    It is so much more than a prayer
    REM: Coming to a church does not mean accepting Christ
    That church was an example to others
    Not everyone rubbing shoulders with them became believers
    But they saw Christ through that church
    The faith was strong IN the church - and was felt BEYOND the church
    They turned away from idols
    Their conversion to Christianity was true and genuine
    That is true repentance
    Trust Christ - marked by the new self!
    Their transformation was due to their devotion to God - Rom 12:2
    Romans 12:2 NASB95
    And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
    They got this!
    They relied on genuine relationships
    Terms like nursing mother, father, children - picture of family
    Their church was genuinely a family
    They endured suffering (to endure is to keep doing while…)
    They longed for growth, spiritual growth
    People REALLY WANTED to grow in the faith
    They recognized the need in their culture
    They did well, and longed to excel still more, at Paul’s urging

    2) The Reason for the Focus

    This church was focused on Christ and His return!
    They were reminded of this focus
    His return, and their relationship to Him, SHAPED their lives
    Influenced how they lived
    Christ and their church was top priority - period
    In a word…

    HOPE

    The theme of their church, their lives - needed to be hope
    Undeniable
    Forget hope, and life is hopeless - kinda redundant, I know
    They were strong in faith, and love
    They struggled with clinging to hope
    Things did not seem to be getting “better”
    Perhaps they needed some evidence that Jesus was really returning
    It was to be enough that He said it
    I fully expect Jesus to make good on His promise
    Hope - confident expectation
    Every promise made has been kept to this point
    Paul reminds us of the biggest yet to come - in Ch. 4
    The gathering of the Church together to meet Him in the air
    THE RESURRECTION
    Paul delivered to them what He knew and experienced
    He later wrote about it in 1 Cor. 15 (he is IN Corinth when writing 1 Thess!)
    1 Corinthians 15:3 NASB95
    For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
    1 Corinthians 15:4 NASB95
    and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
    And because of Christ’s resurrection, all in Christ will be made alive, resurrected
    1 Corinthians 15:22 NASB95
    For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
    Even though we physically die
    1 Thessalonians 4:14 NASB95
    For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
    Thus, Paul says to live as one with HOPE
    Comfort one another with the HOPE of Jesus, gathering together His Church, His Bride, those who have surrendered their lives to Him and for Him
    It starts with giving your life to Christ
    …being sealed with the Spirit - the guarantee of your salvation
    (We will study the permanence of salvation on a Wed. soon)
    HOPE - I see the word WILL
    “WILL bring with Him”
    Lord “WILL descend with a shout”
    “dead in Christ WILL rise”
    “WILL be caught up”
    “SHALL always be with the Lord”
    Live with that HOPE
    Because….

    3) God is Faithful

    V. 24 - This will all come to pass - it is promised
    He is indeed faithful to transform you, us
    Let’s reflect on us a moment (each item in point 1)
    God is known by His faith and love
    Look at His actions!
    Christ was THE example
    To worship anything else is clearly foolishness
    God expects genuine relationships
    Christ suffered to ensure your relationship, if you want it
    And the LORD longs for your growth, your spiritual growth
    CLOSE
    Opening - Grace
    Closing - Grace
    Just like our spiritual life
    God invites us in, by His grace
    Then God keeps us His, by His grace
    Grace - unmerited favor
    His grace gives me worth
    His grace gives me purpose
    His grace lead to His mercy which gives me eternal HOPE - 100%
    How about you? Do you know you are His, born again?
    Last thing
    What is the mission of Cornerstone? How do you answer that?
    Paul reminded this church in this letter that Jesus was still in the business of keeping promises
    I’m here to tell you the same thing
    As we saw in this letter - the church did well with the work given, and they were to excel still more
    You are surrounded by a community of people, just like those in Thessalonica
    Lost - blindly following empty religion
    Lost - blindly following pagan cults
    Lost - blindly trusting in their own strength
    Believers struggling with hope
    Somebody should do something about that.
    CHURCH! HELLO??
    “Somebody” here will do this, right??
    If there has ever ben a time for the church to be the church, it’s now
    It’s up to you, to us
    Jesus did His part, “It is finished”
    He’s going to return
    Meanwhile, there are disciples to be made.
    It’s up to the church!

      • Romans 12:2NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 15:3NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 15:4NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 15:22NASB95

      • 1 Thessalonians 4:14NASB95

  • Great Is Thy Faithfulness
  • King Of Kings

      • 1 Thessalonians 5:28NASB95

The Church in Noble - Cornerstone
cornerstone@wabash.net
618-723-2779
https://cccnoble.faithlifesites.com
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